At forty-five minutes past the hour Mark was visibly restless, and by a quarter past he was positively pacing. It didn't matter to him that this was a sensitive legal affair involving three major parties across two continents. Considering that Hawkins-Billet was extending its services pro bono - hardly an inexpensive favor - surely it wasn't too much to expect punctuality from the client?

Learning mandarin? Our lesson today teaches how to make confident statements about the future using what Brendan refers to as a "prediction sandwich" and the rest of us call the 会... 的 construction. But don't let this grammatical lingo scare you off -- by the end of this lesson you'll have learned a tremendously easy way to make predictions about what will happen. So join us for today's show and if you have any questions, feel free to let us know in our discussion section below.
 said on
June 2, 2012
I was taught that 他回来的  means he/she will "return" or "come back", not that he/she will "come". Now I'm confused.
 said on
June 2, 2012
@mr.moreno -> 会来 not 回来.

 said on
June 2, 2012
Ahhh, got it. Awesome, thanks.
 said on
June 21, 2012
great voices!
 said on
July 11, 2012
Great lesson! I will now never forget this construction for the rest of my life!
 said on
July 28, 2012
Can you have a v-o sandwich? 比如说:我会告诉她的。
 said on
July 29, 2012
@Jack Perry,

What do you put in between two pieces of bread?

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
July 29, 2012
@Echo,

I thought you said you always put a verb in the middle of the 会...的 sandwich. I just wanted to check if that applies to verb-objects such as 告诉她.

Could you make a sandwich as complicated as something like this?

如果你再和我的女儿练习,我会把你的腿打断的。
 said on
July 29, 2012
@Jack Perry - Yup, that works fine (though I assume that the speaker probably means 联系 rather than 练习). Technically we probably should've said it was a verb phrase sandwich, but we were trying to keep it simple for purposes of the lesson.

Also: welcome!
 said on
July 29, 2012
Ahh yeah my bad. I've largely been disregarding the lesson levels, but I can't help it! When I went down to Elementary and still found the lessons hugely helpful, I thought I'd take a look at Absolute Beginner lessons too. :)
 said on
August 8, 2012
did anyone ever suggest getting voices that are further apart..like a tenor and a bass. for me these voices, and many, are so close i cannot hear the exchange..and that makes it difficult to follow..when you're trying to learn the language. it would just help.

 said on
September 24, 2014
so, can i use this to predict the weather? like 我認為今天回雨的。
 said on
September 24, 2014
会 (not 回) + verb + 的

so... 会下雨的

雨 alone is a noun.